Daily roundup: FGM, vocational training, and youth employment
Laura McCardle
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
New laws to protect FGM victims set to be announced; MPs launch youth training inquiry; and Sandwell Council to offer jobs guarantee to young unemployed, all in the news today.
Parents who fail to prevent their daughters from undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM) will be prosecuted under new laws expected to be announced by Prime Minister David Cameron. The Telegraph reports that Cameron will announce the new legislation, as well as plans for lifelong anonymity for victims of FGM, after it emerged that 137,000 victims of FGM are living in England and Wales.
The education select committee has launched an inquiry into apprenticeships and training for 16- to 19-year-olds. The inquiry will cover the range and effectiveness of apprenticeships and traineeships, current levels of employer engagement in schemes and what can be done to encourage more young people to consider vocational training. Written submissions should be made by 30 September.
Sandwell Council is offering unemployment young people a paid job or training placement for at least six months through a business partnership. The Sandwell Guarantee could help up to 4,000 young people aged 16 to 24 on benefits or not in education, employment or training, the council said. Placements will start with a six week college course in sectors such as food and drink, construction, business, horticulture, advanced manufacturing, and health and social care.
Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has confirmed that government control of Doncaster Council could end a year earlier than planned. The BBC reports that the failing council’s children’s services will still be transferred to an independent trust despite Pickles’ suggestion that government intervention could end in September.
A Birmingham nursery has been banned from re-opening after a worker failed to inform social services that a toddler had suffered a serious assault by a family worker. The Birmingham Mail reports that a judge has upheld Ofsted’s decision to ban Catherine’s Cross Nursery from re-opening after the incident last year.
The Unite union is balloting its health service members over possible strike action in the autumn over what it calls the government’s “insulting” one per cent pay offer. Unite members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will be asked whether they wish to take strike action or industrial action short of a strike, with the ballot closing on 26 September, the BBC reports.
